May 5-11, 2025

Weather | 5/5, cloudy, 43°, 63° | 5/6, sunny, 45°, 70° | 5/7, sunny, 52°, 75° | 5/8, p. cloudy, 52°, 69° | 5/9, sunny, 42°, 75° | 5/10, sunny, 41°, 81° | 5/11, sunny, 51°, 77° |

• Monday, 5/5: Slow Mail & Beating Back Grass
  • The U.S. Postal Service has tanked this month. For the first time, ever, we haven't received utility bills in the mail by the fifth of the month. Traditionally, the fifth of each month is our bill paying day, so all utilities get paid on time. Packages sent by mail are traveling back and forth between sorting stations. We are seeing packages bouncing around between multiple locations in St. Louis or Chicago. I have a package of fly tying items that was sent from St. Louis to Hannibal, and then back to St. Louis. As much as possible, we will be forced to go with automatic bill paying and forget paying bills via mail. One bill, which was garbage, was paid today, because it never changes, so we knew the amount to pay.
  • Mary mowed the rest of the west lawn. Grass clippings were used to mulch the five blueberry plants, two small apple trees in the west yard, and the newest cherry tree.
  • I cleaned out grass growing inside the hardware cloth cage around the Antonovka apple tree. I also temporarily removed the cow panel and used the trimmer to knock out tall grass, then reinstalled the panel. I did the same chore on the Goldrush apple tree, along with thinning fruits on Goldrush (see photos, below).
  • We heard coyotes yipping and howling nearby in the east while walking Plato at night.

Grass trimmed on the Antonovka apple tree.
Goldrush & Granny Smith are in the background.

Untrimmed grass around Calville (right) & Roxbury (left).

• Tuesday, 5/6: Grass Work & Birds
  • Mary did more mowing and got partway through the east yard. She mulched the sweet cherry tree with grass clipping. That tree still has blossoms on it.
  • I removed cow panels, weedwhacked tall grass and culled fruit on the Calville Blanc d'hiver (which translates to White Winter Calville) and Roxbury Russet apple trees. The Calville had a lot of tiny apples, but the Roxbury had very few, even though both bloomed profusely. I also raked tall grass that I cut and stuffed it inside cow panels around trees.
  • Mary saw a rose-breasted grosbeak, which was the first of the year.
  • She also noticed a ruby-throated hummingbird going bonkers trying to protect all of comfrey flowers on all sides of house.
  • Gnat season has begun. An ample supply of bug dope dabbed on ears, the neck, and parts of the face keeps them at bay, but they still bounce off your face.
  • More parsnips are sprouting in the near garden.
  • We ate some acorn squash with leftover turkey pot pie. It's amazing how long the squash have lasted. They're usually gone by March.

• Wednesday, 5/7: Outside, Again
  • Mary mowed the rest of the east yard and put grass mulch around a small pie cherry tree and a new apple tree called William's Pride.
  • Mary and I examined the three new trees. We're seeing a tiny bit of movement on a couple buds on the two new apple trees, but not much of anything on the Seckel pear tree. It's obvious that Fedco left our trees in the dark. They sprouted some leaves that never saw sun and are yellow. Those leaves are now dead. It wasn't a good job done by Fedco. They say they had help issues and obviously our box of trees was one of the issues. I plan to get back to them about it.
  • I weedwhacked circles in the tall grass for two new planting locations in the south orchard. I want to transplant two small Sargent crabapple trees. I'll let one grew up and graft McIntosh buds on the other sapling. I also weedwhacked paths between all of the trees in the south orchard.
  • Mary heard a common yellowthroat warbler, which was the first of the year.
  • A male house wren stuffs sticks on top of the electric fencer unit every spring. Sometimes a female wren turns the mess into a nest, but usually our outside activity forces a female wren to ignore the male wren's stupidity and goes elsewhere. I'm joining forces with the female wren and removing the sticks. I've done it for three days, straight. Today, I removed sticks twice in the day. We'll see how long this contest continues.
  • I watched the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars NHL playoff game. The Stars won, 3-2. Boo...I'm rooting for the Jets.

• Thursday, 5/8: Wild Hockey Game
  • I put labels on Batch II of the spiced apple wine and stored the 14 bottles in a cooler.
  • Mary did a bunch of house cleaning.
  • I removed the bent jack on the front of the trailer. It had quite a hodgepodge of bolts, nuts, and washers.
  • I sharpened the blade on the new lawnmower and cleaned the foam prefilter that covers the air filter.
  • I mowed all of the paths between the trees in the south orchard, along with the patch by all of the cherry trees west of the house. Grass clipping mulch went around four small apple trees in the south orchard.
    
  • I took Bill's advice and watched Game 2 of the Edmonton Oilers/Vegas Golden Knights NHL playoff series. The Oilers won 5-4 in overtime. It was a wild game. The Oilers have come from behind to win in six consecutive playoff games, a new NHL record. Their goalie, Calvin Pickard, saved a ton of really good shots on net and is the reason the Oilers won this game. Of course, it helped that the Oilers' top two players, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who were scoreless throughout regulation play, combined for the overtime winning goal.

• Friday, 5/9: Transplanting Sargent Saplings
  • There are two more small apple trees in the south orchard. I dug two holes and added amendments (cut grass, firewood bark, and compost) to the holes. I also cut down a small ash that has woodpecker holes in it, destined to die soon with damage from emerald ash tree borers. It was right next to one of my holes. I dug up two small Sargent crabapple trees under the big Sargent tree. They were shoots off a one-inch root and had no roots of their own. Even though I doubt if they'll live, I went ahead and planted them in the holes. Once I poured six gallons of water around the saplings, they perked up. I added a plastic guard around the two new saplings and a makeshift surround around both trees with scrap two-foot high fencing. If they live, one will grow to replace the current Sargent tree as an apple pollinator and I will graft McIntosh buds onto the other, using it as rootstock.
    
  • I mowed a section of the south lawn, including under the big Sargent tree, and put grass mulch around the newly planted saplings. Then I mowed the lane, so grass is short for Bill's arrival tomorrow.
  • Tiny bunnies were running up and down the lane as I mowed it. I laughed out loud seeing one of these little guys moving its legs as fast as they would go and barely getting down the road. I think there were four of these fluffy rabbits on the lane this evening.
  • Mary finished up on housecleaning.
  • While watering the near garden, Mary noticed a few onions starting to sprout.
  • Close to sunset, we smelled a skunk, but never saw it, thank goodness!
    
  • I watched the last half of the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars NHL playoff game. The Jets won, 4-0. The series is tied, 1-1.

• Saturday, 5/10: Bill Visits Us
  • Mary and I decided to take the weekend off from outside work.
  • Bill arrived around 10 a.m. Of course, Plato was overjoyed to see him.
  • I watered the Sargent crabapple saplings twice that I planted yesterday.
  • Green is showing on all three trees we purchased from Fedco this year.
  • Bill talked about how he is working on insurance compliance with subcontractors that his company uses to build homes. It's a tough go, because these tradesmen aren't keen on getting back to him, or doing paperwork. His employer, McBride Homes, builds 800 to 1,000 homes a year.
  • When we put the chickens to bed, we could not find a Rhode Island red hen. I looked several times in the chicken yard after Mary did a thorough search. I even looked for her twice after dark. We suspect she tucked herself under the coop for the evening and night. For about 10 days she's acted odd, such as staring at other chickens grabbing sunflower seeds without trying to peck any for herself. She's been wandering around in a daze.
  • We watched two movies that Bill picked out. They were the 1987 film, The Princess Bride, and the 2019 movie, Knives Out.

• Sunday, 5/11: Mother's Day
  • When we let the chickens out in the morning, the missing Rhode Island red hen was laying in the shade on the east side of the chicken coop. It didn't look well and died by the end of the day.
  • Mary picked three radishes out of the near garden. I washed them and Bill, Mary, and I each ate one. They were very good, without a hint of heat.
    
  • Bill went home by about 3:30 p.m. He's very happy to have a good job inside an air conditioned office. He plans to revisit us around Memorial Day.
  • I called Mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day. The recent earthquake centered south of Knoxville, TN, shook Karen and Lynn's house in northeast Georgia, Mom told me.
  • While doing evening chores, Mary and I heard a weird bird sound. It was the song of a great crested flycatcher, the first of this year.
  • I watched the second half of the Winnipeg Jets/Dallas Stars game. The Stars won, 5-2, and lead the series, 2-1...boo, hiss.